excess internal static in radio

Finally found the problem. I am just in an area where I can't receive very well. I am over 30 miles from closest radio am station.
Plus I live way out in the country with lots of hills. I took a good old am radio that I knew was good and tried it and it did the same thing. I also have an electric power transformer next to my house. Tried the good radio in each room upstairs and down stairs and still no good. Could still only faintly pick up a couple of stations from somewhere, don't know where. I am going to take one of my radios to a bigger town and try it when I get the chance. Will let you all know. Thanks so much for all suggestions, got a lot of good advice and information I can use.

Sounds to me like it's a combination of things. Living right next door to a high voltage ac transformer. Living in a hilly area, especially if you are at the bottom. Also, today's modern appliances can cause a lot of nose. Computers, television, modern lighting, that can all be causing static on all radios. You might try a longer wire, Do not put a ground the set. It has ac on the chassis, and, grounding this set is inviting danger.
Try putting the longer wire at a higher level. See what it does.
I'd say about 25-30" should do.

Hope this helps.

If I were to rig an outside antenna system for my am radios, where would I hook the wire to the radio? There are no connections for using an external antenna. I found out the trouble was not my radios. I took one to my brother's in a town 30 miles away and it picked up great. However the bad reception could be causes from the power transformer next to my house. An external outside may not help if that is the case. Is there anything I can do to limit the interference from the transformer such as some type of filtering device?

What do you use in place of mica caps?

Use a modern mica capacitor. Do not use ceramic disc. They are unstable.

Are you talking about the domino caps? What kind of capacitor do you replace these with?

If you are talking about mica capacitors, you need to replace them with modern mica capacitors. It depends on what system it is. If they have three big colors, and, numbers on the other side, they are mica molds. They are paper capacitor in a mica looking body. They are usually waxy on the outside. Those were made by The company Mica mold...